Re: How to Fix Southern Miss Athletics

I think that making links in posts open in a new tab fixed the Ctrl+ / Ctrl- thing automatically. Good job requesting that I kill two birds with one stone. Kind of like introducing me to a rich single woman.

I simply say thank you!

now apologize for not giving my friend Andre time to work on His board and being a N_GGER.

Re: How to Fix Southern Miss Athletics

(1) Not another home game (whether in person or on TV) until a whole lot of issues get addressed. - Disagree. It is what it is with us, and the folks that have been showing up for 30+ years (like myself) deserve to see the Eagles at home.

(2) Get out of C-USA. - Disagree. Going independent would greatly diminish us. We need conference affiliation and the possibility of bowl games. We're poor, trying to stand alone would make us more so.

(3) Increase student fees. - Disagree. Tuition is strangling a lot of families already, and enrollment isn't large enough to even make a dent in infrastructure issues.

(4) Finish the stadium expansion. - Disagree. Crowd size is decreasing, but stadium seating is increasing makes no sense to me. Fill it up consistently, then grow it.

Re: How to Fix Southern Miss Athletics

IF they did some of the things I suggested, I think things would get better. Don't you?

As for them actually doing these things, well, you've got history on your side of the "pipe dream" discussion.

Increasing Student fees might give us a very small chunk of change but would change nothing. Fewer home games aren't going to happen because we are in a Conference that will require more home games......but fewer homes games isn't the damn answer either. Stadium expansion isn't going to change anything, will just make it look emptier and more pathetic than it did on Saturday. The issue is the conference...PERIOD. We've had attendance issues for 30 years. Excitement is our problem. We have NOTHING to be excited about right now. We had a chance to change that Saturday by surprising folks by beating Kentucky but we fumbled that game away in typical Southern Miss style. Now what's left, playing a bunch of schools nobody has heard of.

I like the idea of going back to the old way of doing things....but I think we are getting back to that. Isn't Auburn and Bama on the schedule now. We just scheduled State again. This is the old way of doing things but we'll have to wait that out....and don't play the "big" game opening day. If you win it's great but lose....and season over. play those games mid season like we used to.

Re: How to Fix Southern Miss Athletics

Increasing Student fees might give us a very small chunk of change but would change nothing.

Do the math, man. Even an extra $200 per year (not even $100 a semester) would bring in about $3,000,000. That's almost a 15% increase in budget, thanks to a single decision. When's the last time you got a 15% raise (without changing jobs)?

(1) Not another home game (whether in person or on TV) until a whole lot of issues get addressed. - Disagree. It is what it is with us, and the folks that have been showing up for 30+ years (like myself) deserve to see the Eagles at home.

Sure, you personally deserve it, but how many of "you" are there? The majority of our fans are lukewarm at best.

(2) Get out of C-USA. - Disagree. Going independent would greatly diminish us. We need conference affiliation and the possibility of bowl games. We're poor, trying to stand alone would make us more so.

Who even goes to bowl games? I've been to 5 of them, and the only ones that were even remotely well-attended were the ones in states adjacent to Mississippi. And if bowls meant anything, we'd be in better position. We've been to over 20, if memory serves, and that's probably more than most P5 teams.

C-USA is draining the life out of us. Mark my words, we will lose to C-USA teams this season that could never have kept it close against Kentucky. Just thinking about them destroys one's motivation.

(2) Get out of C-USA. (3) Increase student fees. - Disagree. Tuition is strangling a lot of families already, and enrollment isn't large enough to even make a dent in infrastructure issues.

$100 extra per semester would yield $3,000,000+ per year. A 15% budget increase. That would go a long way. As for "strangling families," if you can't afford the equivalent of a couple tanks of gas each semester, I'd suggest tuition didn't need to be your priority anyway. That's flying too close to the sun financially for everybody in the house not to be in the labor force full time. Sounds mean, but we need plumbers, electricians, etc., not just college kids, and it wouldn't kill us for a few of them to be American.

(4) Finish the stadium expansion. - Disagree. Crowd size is decreasing, but stadium seating is increasing makes no sense to me. Fill it up consistently, then grow it.

I don't think we'll fill it up consistently until were already spending a lot more and out of C-USA. You can't sit around and wait for that to happen. You've got to take steps to make it happen.

Besides that, this "build it so small it's always full" mentality is a relatively new concept, and it's a stupid one. You ought to build the maximum number of seats you can ever imagine needing. This notion that 15,000 people "look better" in a 15,000-seat stadium than 30,000 people "look" in a 60,000-seat stadium is just asinine. Shouldn't survive a moment's consideration. 15,000 people in a 15,000-seat stadium just looks like a tiny crowd in a tiny stadium. Doesn't "look good" at all. Who are you trying to fool, the family dog FFS?

(6) Play more SWAC schools at home. - Disagree. If increasing the number of Southern Miss fans in attendance is the goal, bringing in the next SWAC school won't get it done.

The goal for me is getting more butts into seats. They can be fans of the Presbyterian Blue Hose or the Richmond Spiders for all care. They all bring money, and they all count. Besides, those SWAC games are a lot more fun than grinding it out against Texas State or UAB in a half-empty stadium.

Can't do #7 without doing #1-6. But you shitted on all of those, so I guess your analysis of #7 makes sense for you.

We have a relatively small budget at this point in time. To say "we're poor," like its some inherent aspect of our character, is wrong.

---

Honestly, I don't mean to be unkind, but your whole post just seems kind of downtrodden. Like, "this is how it is, and it'll only get worse, so don't try anything different that might take me out of my comfort zone." That kind of attitude is pretty prevalent in South Mississippi / South Louisiana. People laughed at Ben Carson when he said that "poverty is a state of mind," but I kind of agree with him. There's nothing inherently shitty about your part of the world except that y'all let it be!

Re: How to Fix Southern Miss Athletics

Increasing Student fees might give us a very small chunk of change but would change nothing.

Do the math, man. Even an extra $200 per year (not even $100 a semester) would bring in about $3,000,000. That's almost a 15% increase in budget, thanks to a single decision. When's the last time you got a 15% raise (without changing jobs)?

Re: How to Fix Southern Miss Athletics

Increasing Student fees might give us a very small chunk of change but would change nothing.

Do the math, man. Even an extra $200 per year (not even $100 a semester) would bring in about $3,000,000. That's almost a 15% increase in budget, thanks to a single decision. When's the last time you got a 15% raise (without changing jobs)?

Re: How to Fix Southern Miss Athletics

Screw IMG...... they have done nothing for us. For marketing, nothing. Never have understood why we have one of the best marketing and business schools in the southeast, and we don't put these students to work. Amazing...........

Re: How to Fix Southern Miss Athletics

Me neither Beers...the business office and marketing in general are 100% SUCK around here! Why don't we utilize our on campus resources??? Do we not have any tenured professors who know how to apply the theory they instruct? What The Fuck?!?